Bible Stories and Religious Classics

Produced by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.
1903
There never was a time when the demand for books for young people was so great as it is to-day or when so much was being done to meet the demand. Children's Counter, Boys' Books, are signs which, especially at the Christmas season, attract the eye in every large book shop. Tales of adventure, manuals about various branches of nature study, historical romances, lives of heroes—in fact, almost every kind of book—is to be found in abundance, beautifully illustrated, attractively bound, well printed, all designed and written especially for the youth of our land. It is indeed an encouraging sign. It means that the child of to-day is being introduced to the world's best in literature and science and history and art in simple and gradual ways.
In the Middle Ages stories of the martyrs and legends of the Church, along with some simple form of catechetical instruction, formed the basis of a child's mental and religious training. Later, during and after the Crusades, the stories of war and the mysteries of the East increased the stock in trade for the homes of Europe; but still the horizon remained a narrow one. Even the invention of printing did not bring to the young as many direct advantages as would naturally be expected. To-day, when Christian missionaries set up a printing press in some distant island of the sea, the first books which they print in the vernacular are almost invariably those parts of the Bible, such as the Gospels and the stories of Genesis, which most appeal to the young, and, what is of special importance, they have the young directly and mainly in mind in their publishing work. This was not true a few centuries ago. The presses were, perhaps naturally and inevitably, almost exclusively occupied with books for the learned world. To be sure, the Legenda Aurea, of which I shall speak later, although not intended primarily for children, proved a great boon to them. So did the Chap Books of England. But it was not until the middle of the eighteenth century, when John Newbery set up his book shop at St. Paul's Churchyard, London, that any special attention was given by printers to the publication, in attractive form, of juvenile books. Newbery's children's books made him famous in his day, but the world seems to have forgotten him. Yet he deserves a monument along with Æsop, and La Fontaine, and Kate Greenaway, and Andersen, and Scott and Henty, and all the other greater and lesser lights who have done so much to gladden the heart and enlarge the mind of childhood and youth.

Philip P. Wells

Содержание

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BIBLE STORIES AND RELIGIOUS CLASSICS

INTRODUCTION

CONTENTS

HERE BEGINNETH THE HISTORY OF NOAH

THE RAINBOW

HERE FOLLOWETH THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM

HERE BEGINNETH THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN

HERE NEXT FOLLOWETH THE HISTORY OF MOSES

THE BURIAL OF MOSES

THE HISTORY OF JOSHUA

THE HISTORY OF SAUL

THE HISTORY OF DAVID

THE SONG OF DAVID

THE STORY OF A CUP OF WATER

THE HISTORY OF SOLOMON

THE HISTORY OF REHOBOAM

A LITTLE MAID

HERE FOLLOWETH THE HISTORY OF JOB

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB

HERE FOLLOWETH THE HISTORY OF TOBIT

HERE BEGINNETH THE STORY OF JUDITH

THE VISION OF BELSHAZZAR

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY

THE BURNING BABE

EASTER

THE LIFE OF ST. PETER THE APOSTLE

THE LIFE OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE

THE LIFE OF ST. CHRISTOPHER

THE SEVEN SLEEPERS

OF ST. AUSTIN THAT BROUGHT CHRISTENDOM TO ENGLAND

EDWIN AND PAULINUS

THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK

SONG OF THE EMIGRANTS IN BERMUDA

LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS IN NEW ENGLAND

THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS

THE PILGRIM

THE GREAT STONE FACE

THE GENTLE BOY

THE ANGEL

THE RED SHOES

A VISION OF THE LAST DAY

THE OLD GRAVESTONE

THE JEWISH GIRL

THE STORY OF A MOTHER

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL

FLOWERS WITHOUT FRUIT

CONTENTMENT

THE SEARCH FOR PEACE

A SONG OF PRAISE

THE TRAVELLER

TRUE GREATNESS

CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE

FRIENDS DEPARTED

THE LAND OF DREAMS

ADORATION